Captain's Blog

  TRAVEL DAY 72 - Little Falls to Sylvan Beach July 9, 2023 6.71 Hours/48.9 Miles     Another long travel day broken up with 5 Locks on the tail end of our Erie Canal portion. The first 3 locks brought us up 57' in elevation, while the last 2 brought us back down 50.3' and to our final destination for the day. As we said goodbye to the Mohawk River in Little Falls, the Erie canal continues on and is narrower and straighter. A very narrow lock on the Erie Canal     We ended in Sylvan Beach at a free wall (we love free) with no electricity but we are self sufficient with a generator and enough battery capacity to get us easily through the night. We are now at the edge of Oneida Lake. The lake feeds the Oneida River, a tributary of the Oswego River, which flows into Lake Ontario and the gateway to Canada. We were too early for the Sylvan Beach Pirate Festival     We ended the day with our traveling partner Ottyssey, a couple from Louisville. KY. We tied u...

  TRAVEL DAY 69 - Shady Harbor Marina to Waterford July 5, 2023 3.8 Hours/24.7 Miles     Sort of a rough start for this day. The night before, a microburst or something like it roared down the Hudson right at dark. The storm came in so quick and so violent it was unbelievable. In the aftermath, 1/2 of the docks (including the floating dock we were on) broke loose, twisted and pushed together. We were fortunate along with the other boats that we had no damage. Remarkably only a few suffered some scratches. The next morning our boat was trapped between the damaged docks. After the outer boats were moved, the marina staff disconnected and removed the finger dock blocking our way out so we could float our boat back. Once out into the river, we were on our way.  Erie Canal or Champlain Canal?     "Low bridge, everybody down, low bridge, we're coming to a town, and you'll always know your neighbor and you'll always know your pal, if you've ever navigated on the E...